Category Archives: Wall Street

“During the Sunday show, Romney criticized Gingrich, the former House Speaker, for making a statement in May that “cut the legs out” from under the plan, part of a 2012 budget Ryan proposed back in April. “Are we going to deal with entitlement reform or not?” Romney asked. “Republicans came together, Paul Ryan was the author of the plan. But almost every single Republican voted for it, and the Speaker said this is ‘right-wing social engineering.'” Romney’s actual Medicare plan is not as extreme as Ryan’s, however. Instead, it preserves the existing Medicare program, allowing seniors to choose to receive vouchers for private insurance instead of the government plan, while Ryan would end Medicare in favor of a voucher system. Fox host Chris Wallace pressed Romney on his support for the Ryan budget, suggesting that Ryan’s plans to eliminate $700 billion in aid to states, including $127 billion in food stamps, would make Romney vulnerable to Democratic attacks in the general election. Romney said that he would help the poor by growing the economy, and suggested that cutting government benefits for the poor wouldn’t cause problems. “Cutting welfare spending dramatically, I don’t thinkwill hurt the poor,” Romney said………”

I wonder if taking away Mitt Romney’s trust fund, maybe cutting it dramatically, would not hurt him? I mean taking it away retroactively, since he is now “self-made”.Right wing radio gasbags are right: Obama can blow this guy away in 2012. Even the beleaguered Humphrey, with Chicago ’68 around his neck, almost beat Nixon. And Nixon was smarter.Cheers
mhg

BFF“Months before MF Global teetered on the brink, federal regulators were seeking to rein in the types of risky trades that contributed to the firm’s collapse. But they faced opposition from an influential opponent: Jon S. Corzine, the head of the then little-known brokerage firm. As a former United States senator and a former governor of New Jersey, as well as the leader of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s, Mr. Corzine carried significant weight in the worlds of Washington and Wall Street. While other financial firms employed teams of lobbyists to fight the new regulation, MF Global’s chief executive in meetings over the last year personally pressed regulators to halt their plans. The agency proposing the rule, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, relented………….”
Who said there is no bipartisanship in the U.S. Congress? There is in fact a lot of it, but it is not used to help the American people. Look at Goldman Sachs: how many federal government potentates, of both parties, have come from that vampire venerable institution? Not to mention other financial institutions. Jon Corzine (good Blue Northeast Democrat) used to be chairman of Goldman Sachs, before he decided to purchase the state of New Jersey as a senator, then as a governor. Robert Rubin was a honcho of Citibank (Citigroup) before he joined the Clinton administration. And there have been many others.Then there is the money, lobbyist money, political cannabis, “Texas Weed” as I might call it. The money unites both parties in a bond of unprecedented bipartisanship. There is something that is noble about lobbyist money, corporate money: nothing could bring these two major parties together like lobbyist money. Nothing like bipartisanship based on free markets and the freedom of corporate expression (the latter courtesy of, a gift of, the Supremes).

“With Goldman’s Foray Into Higher Education, A Predatory Pursuit of Students and Revenues. Education Management Corp. was already a swiftly growing player in the lucrative world of for-profit higher education, with annual revenues topping $1 billion, but it had its sights set on industry domination. So, five years ago, the Pittsburgh company’s executives agreed to sell its portfolio of more than 70 colleges to a trio of investment partnerships for $3.4 billion, securing the needed capital for an aggressive national expansion. One of the new partners brought an outsized reputation for market savvy, deep pockets and a relentless pursuit of profits — the Wall Street goliath, Goldman Sachs. After the deal closed and Goldman became a partner, employees soon noticed a drastic shift in culture. Longtime admissions managers were replaced, ushering in an era in which recruiters were endlessly hounded by supervisors about hitting weekly enrollment targets. The admissions staff nearly tripled, requiring expanded floor space to accommodate a sales force of more than 2,600 across the country. Management handed down revamped telemarketing scripts designed to prey on poor and uneducated consumers………….” The Huffington Post Interesting to see if Goldman Sachs would hire the graduates of their own “for profit” colleges? America has the best college and university education in the world, but this ugly trend, with strong lobbying and Republican support in Congress, is threatening to create a generation of educated zombies. Tea Party Zombies. Interesting how everything Goldman gets involved in these days leads to some disaster for the public good. Someone once described it as a “leech”, but that was only tow years ago. Now I learn that it is worse: it not only sucks blood, it also sucks out something even more important for society.Cheers
mhg

BFF“In a tense showdown above the East River, the police arrested more than 700 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon. The police said it was the marchers’ choice that led to the enforcement action. “Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested,” Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, said. “Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested.” But many protesters said they believed the police had tricked them, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, only to trap them in orange netting after hundreds had entered………..”

Somehow the Arab Spring overflew Saudi Arabia and landed in New York City. It must be the power of that old fear: it was vanquished in Tunisia and Egypt and Libya and Syria and Bahrain and Yemen, but it still rules supreme in Riyadh.Cheers
mhg